Bickering Leads To
by jadedcutie494
Summary: Alec and Max fight a lot, but what happens when they start using that energy for something else? Starts between GG and BA.
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: unfortunately, I don't own anything of importance, except my computer.

A/N: Ok, don't worry, I'm still writing I Just Can't Do It, I'm just having a little writers block on that, and this is an idea I came up with that just begged to be written. This chapter is really short, and the next one's not too long either, but bare with me and it'll get good. Hopefully.

Chapter 1: The Morning After... Finally

Max tried to open her heavy eyes as an annoying beeping interrupted her sleep. When opening her eyes failed, she stuck her arm out in the direction of the beeping. She felt around, and found her alarm clock, and as she brought it closer to herself, the beeping got louder, so she assumed she'd found the culprit. She tried to turn it off, and when that failed, she simply flung it away, into a wall. She smiled with some satisfaction when she heard the smash, before she rolled over, intending to go back to sleep. But she was stopped from doing just that when she simultaneously felt some beside her, and heard that same someone laughing softly. Her eyes had no trouble springing open now, and they came to rest on... Alec?

He was looking at her now, smiling, well no, grinning was more like it. He seemed to be taking pleasure in the confusion on her face... pleasure. She looked down as that word brought all the memories of last night flooding back. Alec and her, fighting in his apartment, his mouth on hers, grabbing at his clothes. And suddenly, she smiled too.

"Well, you're smiling, and not hitting me either. I'm taking that to be a good thing. So, can I assume that you're not freaking out too much about last night?" He asked, and she looked back up at him.

"Freaking out, no; confused as hell, definitely. And a little scared." She admitted the last bit softly, as she looked back down, biting her lip. He caught her chin in his hand, brought her head up so she was forced to look at him again.

"What're you scared about Maxie?"

"Just... this. What does it mean, Alec? I mean, last night was far from normal for us. I mean, yeah, the fighting was usual for us, but after that? Not so much, you know?" He grinned again before he answered.

"Well, if you think back to the last two weeks, it was sort of normal. And even before that, well, I think was a long time coming."

"Yeah, considering the past two weeks, I guess this shouldn't seem so strange, should it?

A/N: What'd ya think? Let me know!


	2. Chapter 2: 14 days ago

Disclaimer: I do not own dark angel, any of the characters, or actors... unfortunately.

A/N: so, I kinda forgot that I'd finished this chapter and hadn't posted it, woops! Here it is.

Chapter 2: 14 days ago

"Hey Max, what's up?" Max looked over at Alec, who was leaning against the pool table while Sketchy made his shot. She rolled her eyes, thinking, _typical Alec, here at Crash, taking Sketchy's money. Ah well, if the poor boy doesn't realise he's never gonna beat him. Although, it would do Alec some good to lose once in a while, if there was anyone who could do it._

"Nothing, you?" she asked back as she paused to watch the game for a minute.

"Not much, just playing pool. You know, I don't think I've ever seen you play, but lots of people have told me you're good. Care for a game after I finish with Sketchy?" He asked, grinning his boyish grin. She was about to say no, when she remembered what she'd been thinking not a minute earlier. _Well, I said it would do him some good to lose if there was anyone who could beat him. I could beat him, at the very least make him work for his victory. Huh, yeah, like he could beat me._ So she nodded, and moved to lean against the wall to study his game, already picturing her victory, and she missed the look on Alec's face. The one that said he knew how good she was, and what was going through her head at this moment.

Less than five minutes later, Sketchy was sitting with OC at a nearby table, while Alec set up for the next game.

"So, you wanna break, or shall I do the honours?" Asked as he put the last ball in place. Max thought about it for a few seconds before she answered "You break."

"Ok" he said as he moved into position and took his shot. He managed to sink a coloured ball, and Max watched as he followed it with two more. She frowned slightly when he missed his next shot, a shot that for him should have been nothing. But she moved around the table, and set up for her first shot.

Alec watched as she positioned her cue. He'd made his shots very carefully, including the last one. He'd been moving the other balls around subtly, and he knew Max was now thinking she had the game in the bag. He watched as she took the shots he'd predicted she would, and he tried to hide his growing smirk as he watched her play herself into a corner.

She had three balls, plus the eight ball, left, and no clear shot, at least not without hitting the eight ball in prematurely, or one of Alec's balls. So she took the only option, and hit one of her balls, away from the hole it was near. She moved out of the way as Alec quickly moved in next to her, and she could only stare as he quickly sunk ball after ball.

Less than two minutes later, he only had the eight ball left, and she watched in horror as he lined up the shot. But she smiled when she saw that one of her balls blocked the path between him and the eight ball. He could try to go around it, but it would be risky. But her smile fell as she watched him hit the white ball, up and over her own ball, and down to knock the eight ball into the side pocket. She looked up from the pool table slowly, and the first thing she saw was the mischievous look in Alec's eyes, and his smirk. Realisation hit almost immediately, and her eyes narrowed into her patented glare.

"You!" She shrieked, not loudly enough for too many people to hear, but enough that everyone in three metre radius stopped to look at her.

"Me?" he questioned innocently as she made her way around the table.

"Don't try and pull that on me, mister. You knew what you were doing the whole time, didn't you? You missed that shot on purpose. You never miss a shot unless it's on purpose or you get distracted by something, which rarely happens when you're playing pool." She said, venom in her voice as she stopped right in front of him.

"Your point being?" He asked casually, as if they were having a nice, friendly chat.

"You missed the shot on purpose, so why'd you do it?" She accented the last four words with a poke.

"Well, honestly, I didn't want to win outright. I thought it was only fair to give you a chance, and the look on your face when you were sure you were going to win, and then realised you hadn't, well it was pretty priceless, Max." She gaped at him, disbelief covering her face. Alec had to resist the urge to laugh at the look on her face. Laughing now would only cause him pain. He took a discreet step back as the disbelief turned to anger.

"So you let me think I was winning, knowing that I wasn't going to? Can I ask why you thought it would be fun to challenge me to a game of pool, knowing that you weren't going to let me win, somehow, humiliate me like that?" she demanded, trying to keep her voice low as she knew people were listening.

"Ok, first let me point out it wasn't my intention to humiliate you, simply to beat you. There's a difference. And you could've won, if you hadn't been predictable in the shots you made..." he trailed off, realising his mistake.

"Predictable? If you've never seen me play, Alec, then how could you predict my moves?" She asked sweetly.

"Uh, well maybe I've seen you play once or twice, but you know, you've seen me play way more often, so it could've been just as easy for you to beat me. All I did was move try to position the balls so that when you made the shots I thought you would make, you would eventually block yourself from making any more shots. It's not like I forced you to make those shots or anything."

"Are you seriously using that as an excuse? Ugh, I can't believe I even played you, I should've known you'd cheat" She said, before she turned and walked off. Alec stared at her for a few seconds before he headed after her. She was outside the club when he caught up to her, grabbed her arm and swung her back around to face him.

"Just because I knew how you played, and used that knowledge to my advantage, does not make me a cheater. That'd be like saying I'm cheating every time I play Sketchy and he doesn't know I'm a transgenic, or..." He trailed off at the look in her eyes. "No, don't even try to tell me it's cheating to not tell Sketchy. It's either I blow my cover, and probably yours as well, or I stop playing him and everyone else, which I'm not gonna do. Tell me Max, how many people have you play pool against in the last ten years, huh? Probably more than you can count. And how many of them did you tell?" He asked, and his smile was cold and hard after she was silent for a minute. "See? Just because I beat you Max, doesn't give you the right to accuse me of being a cheater, or a liar. You know, your whole attitude towards me is just bullshit. Tell me you weren't like me when you first got out. Hell, you didn't have anyone around telling you to be careful, and you didn't have White after you. I mean, you had Deck, but seriously, he wasn't going to kill you if he didn't have to. So, once again, tell me that you weren't like me." It was the mocking tone that got to her, that had her back stiffening.

"I may have lied to people about where I came from, and I may have scammed people playing pool, or stolen things for money when I needed stuff..." She trailed off, as he looked down at her, slightly amused now.

"You, Max, Miss high-and-mighty-only-steals-from-the-bad-guys, used to steal things for cash? You, who still preaches to me about only stealing money from bad guys, and only for good causes. You stole money from defenceless people cause you needed 'stuff'? This is too good. And all this time you've been walking around acting like you're better than me."

"I am Alec, cause I learned. You still have to do that."

"I still have yet to learn, huh? When was the last time I stole from anybody, except when I was helping you or Logan? Who am I scamming? Sketchy's one of the only people I play pool with, and he goes into every game well aware of how much better than him I am. And I only lie to protect myself, just like you and every other transgenic out there. So tell me again that I haven't learnt anything." He said the last bit softly, and slightly bitterly, before he turned back towards Crash. He stopped and looked back when she said his name. "What now Max? What else? Wanna throw it in my face how I killed a fellow trannie, and skinned another to save my own neck? Or how I lost you and Logan your cure when you had to pay the doctor to remove the explosive from my neck? Or that I almost killed you. Funny thing though, cause you're still standing here, aren't you? What do you have to say to that Max? The fact that I had a tiny, very deadly bomb in my neck, but I couldn't kill you?"

"Would you just shut up for a minute!" She yelled at him.

"Oh, I'm sorry, be my guest. Continue telling me what's wrong with me." He swept his arm out, as though giving her the floor, then he leaned against the brick wall and waited.

"You know, you are a such a conceited, arrogant jerk sometimes, you know that? You think you know me? You think you know what I'm gonna say, or how I'm gonna react? You don't know me at all. You're such a know-it-all, arrogant, son-of-a..." she was stopped mid-sentence as she suddenly fell. He had reached out and pulled on her arm, throwing her off balance, causing her to fall towards him. "What the he...?" this time she was cut off by his lips on hers. It took her only seconds to react, but instead of pushing him off her, as she would have assumed she would do, she took hold of his jacket and pulled him towards her. She took a step forward, closing the small gap still left between them, as one hand snaked up around his back to grip his hair, and bring his head closer.

But even as she moved to take the kiss deeper, he pulled away. She managed to stop her sound of protest from escaping, but she couldn't hide the look in her eyes that said she wanted more. But that look faded pretty quickly as Alec just stood there saying nothing.

He was still reeling from the fact that she had kissed him back when she started talking again. The first few words didn't register, until he heard the words pick up. He snapped back to reality and tuned in to what she was saying, or yelling, at him.

"Where the hell do you get off doing that? You can't just go around kissing people any old time Alec. Oh, I forgot, you do it all the time. Well, I'm sorry, but I'm not just another girl you can pick up in a bar, charm and lure back to your bed to become another notch in the belt." She saw the exact moment her words registered, as his eyes suddenly darkened and the muscle in his jaw clenched. Out of the corner of her eye, she though she saw his hand clench into a loose fist. But he didn't say anything, he just stared at her, and she almost instantly regretted her words, until she remembered that he'd kissed her when she'd been telling him off, and know he was angry with her. She lifted her chin, and stared straight back at him. Seconds after she did, he shook his head slightly, and then he turned and left without evening glancing back at her. She stared after him until he had disappeared around the corner. She didn't move until she heard voice coming out of Crash. She recognised OC's voice, and not wanting to talk to anybody, quickly headed for her bike, and then the Space Needle.

Alec slammed the door shut behind him as he entered his apartment. What the hell had he been thinking, kissing Max like that? He hadn't been thinking, obviously. He'd suffered a temporary spout of insanity, that was it. There was no other explanation for his sudden urge to kiss her, or to push her up against that wall and... Ok, no need to think about that. God! What the hell had he been thinking? He was lucky Max hadn't killed him on the spot. But she had been kissing him back, and she had made that cute little sound of protest... what the hell was he doing still thinking about this?

He groaned in frustration as he collapsed onto his couch. He needed to stop analysing what had happened. No, he needed to stop _thinking about_ what had happened. Maybe if he just pretended it had never happened? That could work. Yeah. It just never happened. He didn't kiss Max, and he definitely didn't want to do it again.

Oh hell. He was in for long night.

Across town on the Space Needle, Max was having just as much trouble forgetting about the non-existent kiss. It didn't happen, I don't know why I'm spending so much time thinking about a kiss that didn't happen. It wasn't even that great a kiss. Damn it! What the hell is wrong with me? I'm just gonna go home and go to bed, and not think about the kiss, and in the morning I'll go to work, ignore Alec and not think about the kiss. Or I'll just go home, go to be, got to work and ignore Alec. Definitely ignore Alec, the stupid ass. Who the hell does he think he is, kissing me like that... all hard, and deep and... Bad Max, get your head outta the gutter girl! Ok, going home is not an option, OC'll know something's up and she'll give me the third degree. I'll go for a ride.

She stood up, brushed herself off and left the Space Needle. She took off on her Ninja, and rode as fast as she could.

That night two X5s finally fell into restless sleeps, both trying to forget the events of the night, and both failing miserably.

A/N: As always, let me know what you think!


	3. Chapter 3: 13 days ago

Disclaimer: Don't own it

A/N: here's the next chapter, sorry it's kinda short, but I promise the next one'll be longer. Honest. So, read on...

Chapter 3: 13 days ago

"Hey, boo, where you been all night?" Max was greeted with the sound of her roommate's voice when she entered their apartment early the next morning.

"Wasn't tired, so I just rode around. Had some thinking to do, you know?" She called back as she moved to her bedroom.

"Aiight, if that's your story. You better hurry up, boo, cause Normal'll have your ass if you late again." Max laughed at the thought. Normal had threatened to fire her so many times it wasn't funny, and yet she was still delivering packages on a daily basis for him. Almost on a daily basis, she though with a laugh, as she stepped through to the bathroom.

Once she was in the shower, she let the water wash over her, taking away most of the tension she'd been holding onto all night. After riding around all night, she'd decided to do nothing, because last night, it hadn't happened. That was the decision she'd come to, and she was sticking to it. So when she saw Alec, she was gonna act like it was any other day, cause last night didn't happen. Alec didn't kiss her until she wanted more... oh crap.

Alec walked into Jam Pony, his mind on over drive, not paying attention to his surroundings, which is why he didn't notice the person in front of him until he walked into them.

"Oh, sorry..." He looked down and saw Max glaring up at him.

"It's called looking where you're going, Alec." She told him. He stared at her for a minute, then shook his head, and gave her a quick smirk.

"Yeah, just had something on my mind, I guess. Gotta go." He looked around, a bit confused, then he was gone, headed to the lockers. She watched him until he had disappeared behind the row of lockers. He was scratching his head and looking around, as if trying to figure out how he got there. She shook her head and left. She didn't have time to deal with his drama... despite how cute he looked when he got all confused like that. No, he's not cute. He's annoying, and egotistical and selfish and... an amazing kisser. Damn it!

Alec was having no more luck forgetting the events of the previous night, as he stood at his locker. It took Sketchy four attempts of saying his name to get his attention, and when he did, Alec whirled around, looking confused.

"What?"

"I just wanted to know if you're coming to crash tonight?"

"Uh, sure. Yeah, I'll be by later. Gotta go see a friend first."

"Right. See ya later, man." Alec nodded absently, before turning back to his locker. Nearly 5 minutes later, he shut his locker and headed to the dispatch desk, resolved to not interact with Max again for the rest of the day. If he didn't talk to her, or hopefully see her, he would be able to stop thinking about her, not that he was thinking about her... or their amazing kiss... shit, this was gonna be a long day.

While Max was waiting for someone to sign for a package, she resolved to stop thinking about Alec. While she was riding to her next destination, she resolved to not talk to him all day, so that she would stop thinking about him. While she was eating her lunch, she resolved to stop making resolutions about him, and interact with him if they came in contact, but not to deliberately look for him, or avoid him. By the time she rode in after her last run, she had resolved to stop overanalysing things, and to stop making resolutions period.

Jam Pony was almost empty when she came in, and after throwing her board on the desk, she walked off to the lockers. And walked straight into Alec. And all her resolutions went out the window, along with his.

"Hey."

"Hi." He was holding his pack in front of him, and he'd clearly been going through it when they collided. Now he seemed to be using it as some sort of shield between them. That thought made Max mad, and when she got mad, everything else went out the window. He was looking down at his bag, refusing to make eye contact, so she reached out and tugged his bag away, flinging it into the locker beside them.

"Uh uh, you're not gonna hide from this Alec. You know, you can be such a girl sometimes? You kiss me, and then freak out and run off? And now you're not talking to me? When are you gonna grow up?" That seemed to get his attention.

"When am I gonna grow up? At least I know who I am, as opposed to you, little miss I'm just a normal girl, when clearly you're not. God, and don't even get me started on your 'not like that' thing with Logan. I mean seriously, who do you two think you're fooling? No one, you're not fool..." He was cut off as Max jumped at him, almost slamming him back into the lockers as she kissed him. He reacted instantly, probably cause a large part of him had been thinking about doing the same thing to her. His arms came around her, pulling her closer as one of her hands came up into his hair, while the other ran down his arm, and back up the side of his torso.

This time it was Alec who moved to take the kiss deeper, and Max let him. She opened her mouth, granting his tongue the access it wanted, and she moaned as she tasted him, something she hadn't been able to do the night before. This kiss was so much more than last night; it was deeper, longer, harder, simply more. And it only served to make Max crave more.

Finally, just like last night, it was Alec who pulled back, more from the lack of air than anything else. He had a grin on his face, but as he took in Max's expression, especially her eyes, his grin fell, and he frowned. Max looked around, as if checking to make sure no one had seen them, and he sighed in frustration. The noise caused Max to look back at him, and she backed up.

"Look... this was... I dunno. This was nothing, it was a spur of the moment thing. God, I gotta go." And then she was gone, and Alec was left staring at the empty space where she had been. He raked a hand through his hair, and shook his head, before he reached down and picked up his bag, heading out of Jam Pony.

Alec pulled up outside Crash an hour later, and groaned when he noticed the black Ninja. He'd been to see Joshua, but his friend hadn't been able to calm him down like usual, or help him make sense of the situation. Although, it probably didn't help that Joshua didn't know what the situation was, exactly. He looked back at the bike and groaned again. He was in for a long night. He came in, and found his friends at their usual table up the back, near the pool table.

"Hey, Sketch, OC, what's up?" They both mumbled replies, Sketchy because he was already on his way to being drunk, OC because she was eying some honey at the pool table. His eyes slid over to Max, who appeared to find her beer extremely interesting. "Max." She looked up briefly, and nodded before looking away again, although neither friend noticed. He sighed softly and took the seat next to Sketchy, and attempted to start a conversation, which didn't go well.

A silence fell on the table, except for the soft snores coming from Sketchy. Alec was glaring at Max, who was pointedly ignoring him. OC finally turned back, and noticed the interaction with a raised eyebrow.

"So Alec, what's goin' on wit ya?" she asked, looking pointedly at Max, and that seemed to be the final straw for him.

"What's going on? What's going on is that Max here is acting so high and mighty, when she's the one in the wrong." That got Max's attention, but when she was about to retaliate, he cut her off. "Don't even try and deny it Max. What happened last night, that was a spur of the moment thing, and all on me. And boy did you let me know it. But today? That was all on you, so how about you stop acting like a child and just accept that this one's all on you?" And before anyone could move, Alec had pushed his chair away from the table and was standing up. "How about it Max? Care to fess up? Tell everyone what you did to me today after work?"

"What did she do?" Alec turned at Logan's voice, and mentally sighed. _Fantastic._

"Nothing, Log, buddy. She was just being her usual self, dug herself into a hole, didn't ya Maxie? Whatever. What's one screw up from you compared to all the ones from me, right?" She was about to speak as he turned, but he held up a hand to stop her. "Don't worry, I'm outta here."

And then he was gone, leaving behind a stunned Max for the second time in two days. And once again, all she could do was watch him leave.

A/N: let me know what you think! The next chapter jumps a day, but there'll be flashbacks, so you'll know what happens.


	4. Chapter 4: 11 days ago

Disclaimer: I don't own it

A/N: ok, here's the next chapter. Like I said, it skipped a day, but there are flashbacks, so enjoy

Chapter 4: 11 days ago

Max strolled into work, late as usual, and casually glanced around, trying to hide her real reason for looking around the area. She frowned slightly when she didn't see him, and she thought back to yesterday.

_"Hey boo, you got here just in time, Normal was talking __bout__ firing your ass again when Golden Boy called, distracted him." Max snorted, before the words sunk in._

_"Alec called? Why?" She asked, trying to act casual, but failing miserably she noted from OC's raised eyebrow. She praised her roommate when she didn't comment though._

_"He's not __comin__ in today, he's sick." Max's eyes narrowed, but she didn't say anything. If that was how he wanted to the handle the situation, not that there was a situation to handle, but still. If that was how he wanted to handle the non-existent situation, then fine._

She had accepted his absence the day before, but this was ridiculous. They were adults, they should be able to handle this like adults! Not that there was anything to handle, she reminded herself, before she put him from her mind and went about her normal routine.

Across town, Alec was just waking up. He'd stumbled in to bed around two last night, after taking his friend out drinking. Drinking usually didn't do much to him, what with his transgenic metabolism and all that, but he'd drunk a lot last night, and he hadn't slept for very long. But hey, he'd been catching up with his friend, they had a lot to talk about.

_He woke to the sound of knocking on his door, and cursed whoever it was, rolling over and hoping they'd take the hint and leave. He sighed when the knocking stopped a few minutes later, but after a few seconds of silence, he heard his door open and someone stepped into his apartment. He sat up, instantly awake, and reached for his pants._

_He stepped out into his living room, and jumped at the person. He fought back, and when the person fought back with almost equal strength and speed, he was confused. So he threw himself into it, and managed to pin him down after a few minutes. He looked at the face, and the anger in his eyes changed swiftly to confusion, surprise and finally delight._

_"624?"_

_"Actually, it's Scout."_

_"Scout?"__ Alec raised an eyebrow at the man below him, before he laughed and stood up, holding his hand out, helping his friend to his feet. "What are you doing here?"_

_"Ah, you know, nothing much, just in town, thought I'd see if there was anyone from the old unit here. And here you are." Alec grinned, he hadn't seen any of his unit since Manticore burned, __he__ hadn't known who'd made it out._

_"So, you want a beer?" he asked, and Scout raised an eyebrow._

_"You have to ask?" __And Alec laughed; same old 624._

_"So tell me, what have you been up to the last few months? Have you seen anyone else from the unit?"_

As he stepped out of his bedroom into his living room he saw Scout was still asleep on the couch. He was face down, one leg up on the top of the couch, same with one arm, while the other arm was flopped over the edge, his hand brushing the floor. He grinned at the sight, then got a sneaky idea. If he was suffering, Scout could suffer along with him.

"On your feet soldier!" he snapped, and laughed as Scout fell off the couch before jumping to his feet, saluting before he realised what was going on. When he remembered where he was, he lowered his hand, giving Alec the finger as he did so. Alec laughed at his reaction, and ducked just in time as one of the pillows from his couch came flying at his head.

"Dude, that was so not funny." Scout told him.

"Come on, it was a little funny." When Scout just glared, he shrugged. "Ok, so it was funny for me. You'd be laughing if you did it to me. So how's the head? Even for a transgenic, you consumed a lot of alcohol last night." Scout just grinned.

"And even for a transgenic, I have a really fast metabolism."

"Speaking of metabolisms, do you want breakfast? Or is it lunch?"

"Sure. Hey, don't you have to work or something? You mentioned last night, what was it... Jam Pony?"

"Well yeah, but Normal, the boss, he loves me." He said it with a grimace that confused Scout.

"Wait, is Normal a girl or a guy?" He asked.

"A guy."

"Right. So who's the hot black chick?"

"Original Cindy."

"Right, so Sketchy's the guy who always loses pool and Max is 452, your breeding partner?"

"Right. So yeah, Normal loves me, so when I called yesterday and told him I was sick, he told me to take the rest of the week to _recuperate_. Besides..." he seemed to catch himself before he finished that thought, and quickly changed his tone, although Scout managed to catch it.

"Besides what?"

"Besides, who wants to be at work when they could be hanging out with an old buddy drinking?" He asked, "so how about that breakfast?" Scout knew that wasn't what he was going to say, but he let it drop and nodded.

After her shift finished, Max made her way to Logan's apartment. He'd paged her earlier, so when she got there she walked right in and found him, as usual, typing away on his computer.

"You paged?", she asked, and as always he turned, surprised.

"Hey you." He said, and she gave him a small smile, although her mind was off elsewhere. He started talking, but she wasn't paying attention, she was lost in her thoughts. 'Max? Max!' Hearing her name, she zoned back in and looked at Logan.

"What?"

"I was telling you about an Eye's Only thing, weren't you listening?"

"Sorry, I was thinking about Alec." She saw his face fall, and she quickly added "it's just, he hasn't been at work for two days, he told Normal he's sick and it's weird. Usually if he's not around, it means he's got himself into trouble, which means work for me." She watched as is expression lifted, and strangely, found it annoying that it made him happy that she only cared what to Alec if it affected her. He wasn't that bad... most of the time. Except when he was avoiding problems, like now. She pushed off the wall she was leaning on and stopped Logan mid sentence, he was bugging her anyway, and standing around thinking about Alec was doing nothing. "Hey Logan, I gotta bounce. Promised Joshua I'd stop by and see him tonight, he said he'd make dinner so, see ya." She didn't even bother waiting for a reply, she was gone before he could even process what she'd said.

She arrived at Joshua's 20 minutes later, walking straight in, calling for him. She found him in the living room, painting. "Hey big fella." He turned to look at her and smiled.

"Hey little fella."

"What're ya painting?" She asked walking closer to look at the canvas. It was bright and full of different colours.

"Cindy," he answered with a laugh, and she couldn't help but laugh too.

"So, what have you been doing? Sorry I haven't been around in a few days, it's just been really busy, and Alec's called in sick for the last two days so we've been covering him."

"Alec said he'd come by yesterday, didn't come." He told her, watching her closely for her reaction, which went unnoticed by her. She was angry, and her eyes narrowed. Now he was avoiding Joshua? That was too much.

"Listen big fella, I'm really sorry to do this, but I gotta go, ok? I'll be by tomorrow." And then once again, she was gone.

Alec was sitting on his couch, beer in hand, when his door flew open. He immediately jumped up, spinning around to see who his intruder was. He mentally gave a sigh when he saw it was Max.

"Max, I know why you're here, but really, it's not what..."

"What? It's not what I think?" she interrupted, and he shrugged and nodded. She just scoffed. "Don't give me that crap. You wanna know exactly what I think? I think your stupid ass kissed me the other night, cause you know, your brain doesn't work properly and you don't seem to be able to grasp the concept of normal human behaviour, and after you realised what you'd done, you decided to be really immature and just not show up at work, so the rest of us have to cover you. And it's not even just that, you don't even show up at Joshua's when you told him you'd be there. You know how much he looks up to you, god knows why, and you can't even stop being immature for ten minutes to go see him?" She finally finished her rant and Alec was about to respond when the bathroom door opened and Scout walked out. He was about to say something when he noticed Max. Quickly surveying the situation, he looked between Max and Alec and grinned, but wisely kept his mouth shut. Alec spoke instead.

"Like I was trying to tell you Max, it's not what you think. This is Scout, we were in the same unit back at Manticore. He showed up yesterday morning out of the blue, we spent the day catching up, and well, we got home really late last night, and we drank a lot, so I was tired today. I'll be back at work tomorrow, bright and early, unfortunately. And as for Joshua, well I was talking to Scout and forgot. I'll drop by the big guy's house tomorrow. Satisfied?" In her defence, she managed to compose herself very quickly before answering.

"Whatever. Just don't let it happen again, it's a pain in my ass having to cover you cause you couldn't drag yourself out of bed." He rolled his eyes as she finished, and decided it was wiser not to respond. Instead, he just nodded and waited for her to walk back out the door, slamming it shut behind her.

Scout watched the interaction between the two with interest; it seemed he had found the 'besides' Alec had mentioned earlier, and a feisty one she was.

"So that's Max?" He said after a minute, and Alec looked at him, and sighed.

"Yep, that's her." Despite the exasperation in his voice, Scout could hear something else... something that sounded suspiciously like love. He smirked, but he quickly hid it when Alec said "What're you smirking about?" He cleared his throat, and grinned.

"The look on Max's face when she saw me... that was pretty funny. What did she think was your reason for not going to work?" He saw the way Alec's eyes suddenly looked away from him, and he recognised the evasive tactic when Alec said "She just thought I was being lazy, so how about that food?" He let it slip, and began plotting.

A/N: I know, not my longest work, but hopefully you like it. Let me know, hit that review button.


	5. Chapter 5: 9 days ago

Disclaimer: I don't own it!!

A/N: Ok, here it is, the next chapter!!!! Sorry it's been a while... I actually finished this over a week ago, and I totally forgot I'd written it till now... oops!! Don't hate me! Anyway... on with the story...

Chapter 5: 9 days ago

"So this is Crash huh?" Scout said as they walked down the steps towards the bar.

"Yeah, this is Crash, in all its...glory.' Alec said, nodding, as he scanned the room. "Come on, I can see Cindy." They headed towards the table where Cindy was sitting.

"Hey Cindy," Alec greeted her as they got closer to the table.

"Hey Pretty Boy," she greeted him, and he shook his head at her new nickname for him. "Hey Scout, how was the first day on the job?" Scout grinned.

"I made two whole dollars in tips," he said mock proudly, and Cindy laughed.

"You did better than Pretty Boy here, what did you make? A couple of nickels"

"Alright, have your laughs at my expense, ha ha." While Alec continued talking with Cindy, Scout looked around the room, taking everything in. He grinned when he spotted the old dart board on the wall nearby, then he turned to the entrance and spotted Max coming down the stairs.

"Hey Alec, when was the last time you played darts?" Scout asked, and Alec turned to look at him, confused.

"A while, why?"

"Just wondering if you were still unbeatable." Scout said, nodding to the dart board on the wall.

"What's going on here?" Max's voice asked from behind them, and Scout barely suppressed a laugh when he saw Alec jump at the sound.

"I was just asking Alec when the last time he played darts was, he was unbeatable back when we were back at Manticore. I'd love to see someone beat him."

Max thought about it, the chance to beat Alec after last time was very tempting. "I'll do it. Any chance to kick his stupid ass" Alec threw Scout a glare, and when he simply smirked in response, he sighed.

"Alright, let's do this. Don't say Scout didn't warn you." He warned Max, who rolled her eyes.

"Alright, best of five rounds, five shots each per round. Max, you can starts." She smiled and pulled the darts off the board, handing five to Alec.

She moved back so she was standing three metres away from the wall, and took aim. It hit the board dead centre, and she turned to Alec and smirked as he took her spot. He grinned and threw the dart, laughing at Max's face when his landed on the end of hers. Then she shrugged and moved back to the spot, saying "Lucky shot."

The first round passed quickly and quietly, Max winning in less than three minutes, after Alec threw four shots that all landed in the outer circle. They had a quick drink before they started the next round. Max stood, ready to throw the dart, when Alec moved behind her. She tensed as she felt him brush lightly against her, and she threw the dart, scowling when it hit the outer circle, barely on the board.

"What's wrong Max?" Alec asked, laughing softly so that only she could hear. She straightened her back before glancing at him.

"Nothing, I have a plan." He nodded, then turned to throw the dart, and Max glared at it when hit the dead centre of the board. They didn't exchange a word as she took the spot again, but once again, just as she was about to take her shot, he moved in close to her, this time whispering in her ear "careful Maxie, don't lose focus now." And once again, her shot barely landed on the board. She turned around, and the saying 'if looks could kill' flashed quickly through Alec's thoughts, but she stayed silent as he took aim. She watched him, and decided, after he brushed against her again, that two could play dirty. So they finished the round, Alec winning, while she plotted. She was surprised when he didn't try anything on her first shot, but that didn't stop her from discreetly brushing her hand along the bottom of his back, briefly touching his butt, but she was disappointed when he hit the dead centre once again, landing right next to her own dart. He whispered in her ear as she took his spot. "Trying to distract me Maxie? Alright, game on."

And so it went on, each time the other was up, they would try to distract them, starting with light brushes here and there, whispering in each other's ears, until Max had had enough after losing another round, and brought out the big guns. Just as Alec was getting ready to take his first shot of the fourth round, she stripped off one of her tops, leaving her in just a small tank top. "God, it's hot in here, isn't it?" She said, making a show of fanning herself, and showing off her now bare skin, knowing Alec was watching her, but she was once again sorely disappointed when his shot, despite his eyes being on her, landed squarely in the middle of the board. Alec chuckled at her expression, and moved back while she took her shot, her anger making her miss the centre again. When he was back in position, Max tried again, stretching her arms up, lifting her tank up to reveal more of her stomach. A light smile played on her lips when she knew Alec was watching her, but once again it fell as soon as his dart landed right next to his last one.

Alec smirked at her when she moved forward, and then he made his move. "You know, you're right Max. It is hot in here." In surprise, she turned to see him taking off his shirt, leaving him in a tight t-shirt that clung to all the right spots, showing off the hard muscles of his stomach. Her breath hitched as she took in the sight, but then her eyes moved up and met his, which were sparkling in amusement, and she shook her head and glared before turning back to the board, trying to put the sight out of her mind. Easier said than done, she realised when her shot missed the board completely. Alec was chuckling softly as he threw his next shot before she could realise what was going on. Of course, it hit the centre of the board, right next to the last two. In dismay, Max realised that even if she hit two perfect shots, she'd lost. There was no winning this round. But that didn't stop her from trying. Alec seemed to have realised the same thing, as he didn't make any comments or come near her as she made her last two shots, so she was able to actually get them on the board, although they weren't the best shots, what with the sight of Alec still in her head.

Then the game was over, and Alec was grinning from ear to ear. "What was it you were saying about kicking my stupid ass?" He asked, and she got pissed. She shoved him backwards, anger evident on her face.

"Shut up. I don't know how, but you cheat..."

"I wouldn't finish that sentence if I were you Max." He cut her off, his voice low with warning. He moved towards her quickly, and an image of a cat stalking its prey flashed through her thoughts. "Have you already forgotten what happened last time?" he asked, though he clearly didn't need an answer. She felt herself instinctively moving away from him, until she hit the wall behind her. He put his hands on the wall, either side of her head, and leant in. "I told you Max, I don't need to cheat. You knew the odds going in, and if I recall, you're the one who started the game of distraction. I guess that was the game we were really playing, and I still won." His eyes were looking straight into hers now, and everything else faded away. "I'll let you in on a little secret, Maxie. The only reason I won that game is cause I've been playing it a hell of a lot longer than you." He leant closer, his lips at her ears. "Practice makes perfect remember, so don't feel too bad." Then he nipped her ear lightly, the move so subtle it still looked like he was whispering in her ear. Then abruptly, he pulled back. "Nice game Max, maybe next time you'll win." He flashed her a quick grin, and she was thinking there was something strange about it when he was turned and left, picking up his top before saying goodbye to the others. She watched him go, his last statement whirling around her mind. _What the hell did he mean?_

A/N: ok, so it's kinda short, but let me know what you think


	6. Chapter 6: 7 Days Ago

Disclaimer: It's not mine!!

A/N: Oh My God!! I know!! It's a miracle! An update!! I'm SOO sorry I've been so slack! School's been so frustrating, but it's all over now, forever!! So I'm back and hopefully I'll be able to finish this within a month. It should only have another 3 or 4 chapters left. Anyway, enough rambling from me!

Chapter 6: 7 days ago

'That's it,' she muttered to herself, and not surprisingly, Scout looked up at her, and she swore under breath for forgetting there were other Transgenics in the area whose hearing was just as good as hers.

'What's it?' he asked, moving closer to, grinning cheekily. He had a feeling he knew what was bugging her, but he'd seen the temper she possessed, so he didn't mention his theory.

'Nothing, just... Normal. He's been buggin me all day cause I couldn't deliver one of the packages in Sector 8. Not my fault the people weren't home, I don't what he expects me to do.' She complained, and he smirked at her excuse. He knew she'd already put Normal in his place, he'd witnessed it not 5 minutes ago when she'd walked into the building while he'd been chatting to Alec, who'd just secured him a job.

'Uh huh,' he said, and she turned to glare at him, before turning back to her locker.

'What are you smirking at? God, you're all bloody the same, the lot of you. All peas in a fucking pod.' When she looked up again, he was staring at her, one eyebrow raised in a silent question.

'Are we not in a good mood today Max?' He asked cheekily, and he moved swiftly out of her reach as her arm came swinging towards him. 'Oh no, Alec warned me about the hitting, don't even think about it.'

'Alec warned you?' She asked, leaning back on the row of lockers behind her.

'Yep, said you always hit when someone, especially him, makes a sarcastic remark, or basically says something you don't like, especially him.'

'Really? So why hasn't he learned to move out of the way?' she asked, more to herself, but Scout decided to answer anyway.

'Well, maybe he lets you do it cause it's one more form of interaction you two have and he tries to get that any way he can.' Max looked up at him like he'd suddenly sprouted another head, and he just shrugged. 'Just a theory, you can do with it whatever you want.' With that parting line, he left, strolling out of Jam Pony for his morning runs, leaving a dumbfounded Max in his wake.

Late that afternoon, a very tired, severely pissed off Max walked back into Jam Pony. Because she'd had to go out to Sector 8 that morning, and it had taken a while, she was late for her lunch break, which Normal had said was her own fault, so she hadn't stopped all day. Her patience was wearing thin, and so when Alec accidentally walked into her, she snapped.

'Oh, sorry Max, didn't see ya. Hey, you coming to Crash later? Scout challenged me to a pool game.' He was laughing, and so didn't see Max's hand coming out to hit his shoulder, hard. 'Hey, what the hell was that for?'

'What the hell is your problem?' She demanded, only leaving Alec more confused than when she hit him.

'What the hell? What's _my_ problem? What's your problem? Other than the giant stick up your ass?' He asked, and she narrowed her eyes before she reached out and grabbed his arm, dragging him outside. 'Hey!'

Once they were out of the building, Max pushed him down the small alley next to their place of work, resulting in him hitting the wall of the building.

'Seriously Max, what the hell?' He pushed himself off the wall only to have her slam him back into it.

'God Alec, what the hell is wrong with you?'

'With me? I'm not the keeping you pinned against a wall, that is, I might add, quite dirty.'

'Oh I'm sorry, is Alec getting a little dirt on him?' Alec rolled his eyes, and since Max showed no sign of letting him go, he leant back against the wall, crossing his arms over his chest.

'So, I'm here now, what do you want?' He watched as Max glared at him before she started pacing back and forth in front of him.

'You have serious problems you know? What the hell was that the other night? 'You've been playing it a lot longer'? What the hell is that supposed to mean?' She whirled back around, and he instinctively flinched back a little. Truth was he hadn't meant to let that slip, he'd just been so angry at her. 'Well?' She demanded when he didn't say anything.

'What do you want me to say Max? What is that you want from me? Huh?' She stared at him, and then without warning, she was right in front of him, pushing him back into the wall as she kissed him hard. His arms instantly came up and wrapped around her, pulling her closer as he responded wholeheartedly to the kiss.

They stayed like this for nearly five minutes before Alec pushed Max off him, accidentally sending her into the wall opposite.

'What the hell?'

'You can't just do that Max. You don't get to ignore me, treat me like crap and then when you're in the mood just... just, do that!! God, I'm so sick of this. If you actually make up your mind about what the hell you're doing, or what you want, let me know. Otherwise, just... just leave me alone.'

With that, he strode off, out of the alley, leaving her alone, her mind reeling over what had just happened.

A/N: Let me know what you think!! Thanks for reading!


	7. Chapter 7: 3 days ago

Disclaimer: I don't own it

A/N: so after a looong break, here's the next chapter!! There's 2 more and hopefully I'll get them done REALLY soon...I've just been resting and doing crap all in the last few weeks since my final exams finished but I'm back now, so enjoy...

Chapter 7: 3 days ago

It had been four days since they had last spoken, since that last kiss outside Jam Pony... well, almost four days, Max grudgingly admitted to herself as she rode through the streets of Seattle. Four days, baring the incident when she had needed Alec's help for an Eyes Only case... the incident she still hadn't told anyone about, since she still hadn't quite figured out what had happened.

"_Hey Alec, what are you doing tonight?" She asked as they stood by their lockers, she kept her door in between them though, avoiding eye contact._

"_Uh, nothing, why?" He asked, and she could hear the confusion, and interest, in his voice._

"_Logan needs a job done, and it's a two person job."_

"_Ya know I always got your back, Maxie." He said playfully, and she couldn't suppress the small shiver that moved up her spine at his words. But she quickly shrugged that off, and slammed her locker shut._

"_Whatever. 9:00, Logan's apartment." She moved away, but looked back quickly, "And don't call me Maxie." She didn't see the smirk on his face as he leaned against the row of lockers and watched her pick up her packages and leave._

_Just after 9:30, he'd finally shown up at Logan's, and she had spent another good 15 minutes yelling at him about being late, taking things for granted, letting people down, not being trustworthy, amongst other things, and all the while Alec had been looking at her, smirking, while Logan watched the two, immensely confused._

_Finally, when she paused near 10:00, Alec was quick to point out how much time she'd just wasted, and they hurried out of there, leaving Logan standing alone, and very confused._

_The mission had been going smoothly, at least for the first 5 minutes. Until they got stuck in a closet._

'_I thought you knew the schedule of the guards' hissed Alec, at Max's back, until she whipped around, glaring._

'_Well, I had everything timed perfectly, it's not _my_ fault that someone didn't turn up when they were supposed to!'_

'_Yeah, well I'm not the one who ranted for _half an hour_!' he threw back at her, and her eyes narrowed. 'And for your information, I had a perfectly good reason for being late tonight.' He didn't see her roll her eyes since she'd turned away from him again, but he did hear her mutter 'yeah, I'm sure you had a nice, blonde-bimbo of a reason.' She hadn't realised he had heard her until she felt herself being swung around roughly, and she was met by the cold, hard gaze of his hazel eyes._

'_Actually... I was getting this.' He held out his hand, which contained two small glass vials, and a small piece of paper._

'_Alec...' her heart started to race, and she started to feel very enclosed, claustrophobic. This was it... this was the cure, what she and Logan had been searching for, for months now. And Alec was handing it to her. She took a deep breath and licked her now suddenly dry lips before trying again, 'Alec...'_

'_The guards are changing, let's go.' He said, thrusting the vials into her hands, all the while looking over her shoulder and out the small vent in the door. She stood still, still in shock as he moved around her and out the door. She finally snapped out of it when he hissed her name in her ear, and she quickly put all thoughts about Alec and the cure out of her mind so they could finish the task at hand. Well, she'd tried to at least. She'd almost gotten them caught when she was staring at Alec, trying to figure him out, and a guard had come up behind her. Luckily, Alec had been paying attention, so the guard was on the ground unconscious in less than 5 seconds._

_And once they'd collected the documents Logan needed, they'd gone back out the way they'd come in, and he'd handed her the papers before he got on his bike and sped off. She hadn't talked to him since._

So technically, taking into account that whole mess, it had only been a day and a half since she'd spoken to him, which wasn't nearly as bad as four days, not that she was counting, or cared or anything. _Yeah right,_ that pesky voice in her head whispered to her, and she glared, stunning the person crossing the road in front of her. _Crap,_ she mentally sighed and shook her head slightly, trying to get all thoughts of Alec out of her head. Not that it did much good, not that it ever did.

*********************************************************

'Alright boo, talk to me.' Max turned to face Cindy at their table in Crash.

'About what?'

'Don't give me that. About whatever it is that's got your head all over the place.' Cindy watched as Max's eyes slid over to where Alec and Scout were playing pool. 'Oh, I get it. What'd your boy do now?' Cindy asked, smirking while she waited for Max's reaction. She wasn't blind, she'd noticed that things between the two X5s had been changing over the last week or so.

'He's not my boy, and he didn't do anything.' Max said softly. _Maybe that's the problem,_ her mind said and she shook her head to rid herself of those thoughts. 'He's just been being a pain in my ass as usual, he turned up late for an Eyes Only thing the other night, then blames it on me.' _Ok, so that's not the truth now is it, but Cindy doesn't need to know._ She rubbed her temples, she needed to stop having conversations in her mind, it was going to drive her crazy, if Alec didn't get the job done first.

'Ok boo, whatever you say.' Cindy said, picking up her drink and smiling at a young girl over at the bar.

************************************************************

'So Alec, you ever gonna tell me what's got your panties in a twist?' Scout ducked as a ball flipped off the table and flew straight towards his head. 'Sorry,' he said with a cheeky smile, 'there's no need to play dirty. Now, you are aware that the balls were supposed to stay on the table?' Another ball came flying at his head and brought his hand up to catch it less than an inch away from his nose. He looked down at the ball contemplatively, then back up at Alec, who was watching him through narrowed eyes. 'So we've established two things through this game. One, you clearly still have excellent aim, strength and reflexive skills as proved by this ball and the one now lodged in the wall behind my head, and two you are so very clearly in denial about the whole Max situation which is, of course, understandable given the relationship you've had up until now, and the whole Manticore 'feelings are for the weak' and all that crap. Oh, and I forgot number three,' he added picking up his cue.

'And what's that, oh enlightened one?' Alec asked sarcastically, earning a grin from Scout as he leant over the table to take aim.

'That I can still kick your ass in pool.' He answered as he sunk his last two balls, quickly followed by the black 8 ball.

'Whatever, you deliberately bugged me until I hit those two balls at you.'

'But can you prove it?' Scout asked cheekily as Sketchy came up behind them.

'Dude, what happened to that ball?' he asked indicating the one lodged in the wall.

'Oh, Alec hit the ball a little harder than he intended to, I think Max was talking to him earlier, he was a little pissed off.'

'Huh...I don't remember seeing them talking earlier. Actually, I don't think I've seen them talking in a few days...' he shrugged and picked up a glass and started drinking.

'Listen, I gotta... go' Alec caught himself as he was about to use one of Max's phrases. He shook his head and sighed. That girl was gonna be the death of him. He picked up his jacket and took off.

Over at the table, Max watched an agitated Alec walk out of Crash, leaving a confused Sketchy and bemused Scout in his wake. She glanced back at Cindy, who was watching her with a knowing look on her face. She sighed.

'Don't start. Look, I gotta bounce, Logan wants to _talk_.' Funny how she'd been avoiding Logan like the plague since Alec had handed her the cure and she'd given it to Logan.

'Don't sound too excited Boo, I might have to restrain you.' OC drawled, eyebrow raised. 'I thought things were gonna be better now you got the cure, so what's with the reluctance to visit your lover boy?'

'He's not my lover boy and... I don't know, it just feels...'

'Not how you thought it should?' her friend supplied, and she shrugged.

'It'll probably just take a little time to adjust, ya know? Get used to not having to keep distance between us and all that. Anyway, like I said I gotta bounce. See ya at home.' With that she disappeared into the crowds.

'So what are the chances that those two snuck off for a secret rendezvous?' Scout asked as he came up to the table and took Max's now vacated seat.

'Not a chance. I love my Boo, but God help her she is on of the most stubborn people in the world. I never got her to admit that she had feelings for Logan and she liked the guy, but with Alec she's so set on not liking him, it's gonna take something big for her to admit it's more.'

'Hmm... any chance she's the jealous type?' Scout asked, thinking over Alec's plans for the next few days to see what could work.

'Not really, but she's never been that in to anyone, not enough to care, except once with Logan and his ex.'

'Excellent. Just make sure Max is coming here in two days, leave the rest to me.'


	8. Chapter 8: 1 day ago

Disclaimer: I don't own Dark Angel, never have, never will... unfortunately

A/N: Ok, I'm back, and a thanks to ShadowWolfDagger for PMing me and reminding me that I haven't touched this story in a while. It's almost done, as you could probably tell from the fact that we're nearing the present again. There's one more chapter, and I might do an epilogue but that depends on how the next chapter goes. Anyway, enough of my ramblings, on with the show...

Chapter 8: 1 day ago

'Cindy, I really, _really_ don't feel like coming to Crash, I'm just gonna go for a ride on my baby.' Max said as they closed their lockers at the end of the day. She turned to see her friend glaring at her.

'Nuh-uh, you're coming, you haven't met my new shorty yet and it's been like 4 days since you were there.' Cindy said, looking at her.

'Two.'

'What?'

'Two days, it's only been two days.'

'Whatever, you're coming, even for like an hour. Be there at 8:00, or I'm coming looking for you.' Max opened her mouth to protest, but stopped when she looked at her friend, Cindy wasn't letting this go, and sometimes, most times, when Cindy was involved, it was just easier to agree.

'Fine, I'll be there at 8:00'

'You better.'

*********************************************************************

'I really don't know why you're so insistent that I couldn't cancel this date tonight, I mean it's not like she's all that interesting or whatever, and I made this date like two weeks ago, how'd you even know about it?'

'You must've mentioned it, and you know me, Manticore memory.' Scout shrugged innocently, and thankfully Alec was too wrapped up in whatever to notice, or care.

'Whatever... I gotta run if I'm gonna make this date. See you later.' Alec made his way out of Jam Pony, and Scout waved at his back, smirking. He heard Cindy come up behind him.

'Max'll be there, this plan better work fool.' He turned and smiled.

'Oh it'll work, trust me. And who're you calling a fool?' Cindy smiled, and then whacked him up his head.

'You.' She said simply, before moving past him and exiting the building, leaving Scout standing alone, grinning.

***********************************************************************

At 8:00 sharp, Scout was sitting in a table towards the back of Crash, with a perfect view of both the bar and the door. At the bar, Alec sat with his date, a blonde, of course, and as Scout moved his vision to the door, he watched as Max entered, and looked around. He grinned as he watched her catch sight of Alec and his date, and a slight scowl covered her face.

'Showtime,' he whispered to himself, and then caught Cindy's eye across the table, as Max made her way towards them.

'Hey, where's this shorty of yours?' She asked as she sat down, glancing over her shoulder to glare quickly at Alec and his blonde, who was being very flirty. 'Who's the bimbo?' she asked, hoping she sounded uninterested.

'Who, Alec's date? That's Alicia, he met her...'

'Last night,' Cindy cut in, throwing a look at Scout to shut him up, which thankfully he did, turning to grin at Max.

'Yeah, he met her at the bar; she literally walked right into her.' He told her, barely containing his amusement at the look on her face, particularly when she looked back at the bar and saw the blonde in question running a hand up Alec's arm, as he smiled down at her. Scout, of course, knew that the smile wasn't genuine, or interested in the least, but clearly Max didn't, or wasn't noticing.

'Whatever. I'm gonna get the next pitcher,' she said, standing up and leaving before either Scout or Cindy could point out that the pitcher that currently sat on the table was still half full.

'Now what?' Cindy said, eyebrow raised as she turned to look at Scout.

'Now, we sit back, relax, and enjoy the show.' He answered, smiling lazily at her.

Meanwhile, Max had made her way up to the bar, and was standing beside Alec's date, pointedly ignoring them as she waited to get the bartender's attention.

'Can I get a pitcher? Thanks' She turned back to look over at Cindy and Scout, who both seemed to look away as soon as she turned towards them. She narrowed her eyes, then decided she was being paranoid. She was broken from her train of thought, though, as someone, namely the blonde beside her, knocked into her, bumping her into the bar. She turned, anger evident in her eyes. 'Hey, watch what you're doing! I understand it might be difficult for you, what with all the concentration it must take to _throw_ yourself at someone, but try harder, ok?' she said, smiling at the girl's confused look, and then returning Alec's glare.

'Ignore Max, Alicia, she's always had a pole up her ass, it's nothing personal.' He said, smiling down at his date, then raising an eyebrow at Max's pissed look.

'What did you say, _Dick_?' She asked, hands on her hips, eyes narrowed in that way she only ever seemed to direct at him.

'You heard me, _Maxie_, I think I made myself very clear, didn't I make myself clear Alicia?' he asked, looking down at the still confused girl.

'Oh there's no need to bring your _date_ into this, now is there? You're just going to make her hurt her head, what with all the thinking, I'm not sure she can handle it. But then, you always have liked them dumb, haven't you Alec? What, that the only way you can get them to agree to go out with you?'

'Hey!' Alicia turned to look at Max who simply raised an eyebrow at her.

'Wow, Barbie finally got an insult, or are you just catching up to the first one?'

'That's enough Max,' Alec's voice was low, and if Max hadn't been on a roll, she probably would have noticed the warning signs, but as it was, she was too busy smirking at the girl in front of her.

'So tell me, Barbie...'

'My name's Alicia.'

'Do I look like I care? So tell me...' but whatever Max was about to ask was cut off by Alec clamping one hand over her mouth, the other on her arm and dragging her out of Crash. When he finally got them outside, her released her, the motion sending her forward towards the nearby wall, although not hard enough that she couldn't stop herself. She whirled around, but wasn't able to get anything out before Alec started.

'What the _hell_ is your problem, Max? Just who do you think you are? You can't just come over and start insulting people, god do you know how badly you need a therapist?' he asked, arms crossed as he stared at her.

'Not as much as you do. Besides, it's not like I did anything but speak the truth, it's not my fault if some people can't handle it.'

'Oh, you wanna talk about the truth, huh? So I guess you just _handled_ my comment about you having a pole up your ass? Is that what you call handling it? Cause it didn't look like handling it to me.'

'Oh, shut up Alec! God, you're so bloody infuriating, you know that?'

'I'm the infuriating one? Me? I'm not the one who's so hot and cold I'm getting whiplash, I'm not the one who keeps kissing someone, then telling them repeatedly it's a mistake and it never happened, then coming back and doing the same thing. I'm not the one who came up to you tonight and started randomly attacking your date.'

'Yeah, well I'm not the one who made a date like two days after our kiss.' She muttered, thinking he wouldn't hear, but of course, he did.

'What are you talking about, I made this date like two weeks ago, not that that should matter... unless...' she looked up to see he him processing something, then smirking.

'No, there is no unless. She was just a dumb blonde giving all girls a bad name, and I can't stand that. End of story.'

'Uh huh. Look, whatever Max. I'm sick of this. I said it before, figure out what the hell it is you want, and until then, just leave me alone. Just, leave me alone.' He held up his hands in defeat as he moved away, and out of the alley, leaving Max standing there alone, trying to comprehend what had just happened.

*************************************************************************

Less than an hour later, Alec was just getting comfortable on his couch when his door opened, and he turned to see Max entering his apartment. He sighed and rolled his eyes, not bothering to stand or make eye contact, instead turning back to the TV.

'What do you want Max? Did I not make myself clear before?'

'You made yourself perfectly clear. You said I had to make up my mind about what I was doing, what I wanted.' She paused, as if waiting for him to say something, but when he didn't, she continued. 'I did,' she added, hoping for a response this time, which she got, although not the one she wanted.

'Whoop dee doo, Max.'

'Alec, I'm trying to be serious here, and do what you told me to do, would you at least pay attention?' She demanded, moving to stand in front of him, and he sighed again, looking up at her.

'Fine, you have my attention.'

'Good. Ok... so I was thinking, you know, about what you were saying tonight, and what you said last week after the dart game, and everything that's happened the last two weeks, and... I came to a conclusion.'

'And what, pray tell, was that?' he asked, eyebrow raised, unsure of quite where she was going with this.

'I was jealous tonight.' She said it so softly he barely heard it.

'What?' He asked, thinking he must have misheard her.

'I was jealous, of the blonde. Scout and Cindy...' she paused for a minute, and growled lightly. 'Scout and Cindy said you made the date last night, and I was annoyed that you'd done that, after what we'd done, and then she was being all touchy feely and you were smiling at her and... I was jealous.' The way she said it, made it sound as if she was admitting to something that truly disgusted her, and to Max, he supposed, admitting to jealousy was very close to that.

'You were jealous, huh?' he asked, standing up, smirking down at her.

'Shut up,' she warned him, but it didn't hold the fierceness of her usual threats.

'Oh, what are you gonna do if I don't?'

'This...' she told him, reaching up to pull him down to kiss her.


	9. Chapter 9: The Aftermath

Disclaimer: I own nothing so cool and profitable.

A/N: Oh my GOD!! I know, it's been faaaaaaaaar too long, and I am sooooo sorry, but here is the final chapter for _Bickering Leads To..._

I want to thank everyone who read it, and reviewed it. It's been a long time coming, so I'm gonna stop rambling and let you read.

Chapter 9: The Aftermath

'So, not to sound _totally_ girly, and ya know, ruin my image as the tough chick, but where does... _this_, leave us?' Max asked, smiling up at him as she let herself relax against him.

'Well, first of all, I think the whole jealousy thing has taken care of ruining your tough chick image, but...hey! No hitting!' He told her, and she simply grinned back at his semi-annoyed glare. 'Alright, alright, sorry. To answer your question, I don't know where this leaves us. I mean, we didn't really do much talking last night, did we? After the whole 'I was jealous' thing I wasn't really in the mood to talk. But I guess we have to now, don't we.'

'Yeah, I guess we do.' There was silence between them for a while, until Alec shrugged, moving her slightly with the motion, and she looked up at him again.

'Or we could just not, and let it play out, see what happens for a while. I mean, I know you, so I'm pretty sure you're not in this just for sex, cause that's not you and also you wouldn't have been so jealous if it was.' He paused, and looked down as if asking if he was right.

'You're right,' she told him softly, her eyes moving down slightly in embarrassment, until he caught her chin and lifted it until she was forced to look at him.

'Hey, this isn't the Max I know and love. I mean first, you just admitted I was right about something,' she laughed and he smiled, happy she'd relaxed a little before continuing, 'and second, she's not usually the embarrassed type. Not that I mind, it's kinda cute, but you have no reason to be embarrassed. You have no idea how jealous I used to get when we were around Logan, at how you used to treat him so good and I barely even registered. Hell, I was jealous of any guy you gave attention to, even Josh.' She looked up at him in surprise.

'Joshua? Why were you jealous of Joshua? I mean, don't get me wrong, I love the big guy, but...'

'That's just it. I knew it was never, would never be like that, but you just said it. You love him. For all your denials and '_we're not like that_' lines, you seemed to love Logan. You love Cindy, and even Sketchy. And you loved Ben,' he whispered the last part, and looked away. 'But you always seemed to hate me, and I couldn't change it, not matter how hard I tried, or how much I loved you.' He froze, and she copied his earlier actions and used her hand to bring his face to look at her.

'Alec, I never hated you,' she tightened her grip and held his face when he tried to turn away, and waited until he was looking her in the eye. 'It's true, despite what you may think, or what my previous action might have made it seem. There may have been times when I hated what you represented to me and the memories you brought back initially, but I always knew it wasn't your fault, so I could never hate you.'

'Really?' He asked, and she almost laughed at the timidness of his voice; it was just so unlike Alec to be so unsure of himself.

'I promise,' she watched him relax, then saw the look in his eye that she knew meant he was about to ask something stupid, or cheeky, possibly both.

'Not even when I had that bomb in my head and attacked you and Josh and you had to use your cure money to save me? Cause I distinctly remember you saying at one point that you should've let my head explode when you had the chance.' She rolled her eyes, but her hand unconsciously drifted to the back of his head where she remembered the tiny bomb being pulled from. Any scar was long gone by now, thanks to their quick healing.

'Not even then, Alec,' she told him softly. 'I'll admit, that was probably when I had my lowest opinion of you, and those few seconds where I thought you were going to kill me I came pretty close, but you didn't really give me time to fully form the feelings before you pulled away and yeah I was pissed I lost the money and couldn't get the cure, but I saw the look in your eyes when you had me pinned. You didn't want to be there, you didn't want to hurt me, or Josh. You were just scared, and I know what that's like. And when we were waiting for the doc to pull the bomb out, I didn't want to admit it back then, but I was terrified, and when it went off, right after he pulled it out...' she trailed off, and he looked at her, stunned.

He would've never guessed she'd ever felt that way, considering her actions during that time. He wouldn't have held it against her if she had hated him back then. He hated himself back then. He never wanted to be the reason for that look in her eyes, that was there when he hovered above her, knife in hand.

He reached down and mirrored her actions by placing his hand on her cheek, and couldn't have contained his smile even if he'd tried.

'You will never know how happy I am to hear that, or how much I am experience total disbelief at this moment. If you randomly see me pinching myself in the next... forever, probably, it'll just be cause I'm still expecting to wake up from a dream.' She laughed, then shrugged and looked at him innocently.

'Eh, I would've just assumed it was another one of those weird quirks of yours, don't worry.' She told him, and he glared at her.

'Quirks, huh? Oh you so don't wanna go there with me.' He warned, and she turned to look at the wall.

'I don't know what you're talking about.'

'Sure you don't.' He leant down and kissed her quickly. 'But if makes it better, I'm planning on being there to overlook those quirks for the rest of our lives.'

'Yeah?'

'Yeah.' She kissed him, and it was perfect. Until he opened his mouth to add 'but just so you know, you tell anyone I said that, I will deny it, or if that doesn't work, well, I remember everything you just said too. I never knew you could be so girly.' He winced as her hand came around behind him and smacked his head. 'Hey, I never said it was a bad thing.'

'Alec?'

'Yeah Max?'

'Shut up.' She pulled him down to kiss him, and felt his smile.

'Whatever you say, Maxie.'

A/N: Just another quick thankyou to everyone who read this story, or will in future read it. I love writing, and knowing someone out there enjoys it, you guys rock!


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